A Staff Mis-Step Caused By……

 

….MISSING A STEP IN THEIR ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

I have been anxiously  anticipating the end of a 10 day waiting period for receipt of my documents requested under the California Public Record Act.

On January 30, 2012, Wildomar City Clerk Debbie Lee  provided a response to my request for documents in accordance with her duties and obligations as the custodian of records for the City of Wildomar.

The focus of my document request related to the decision-making process which culminated in a December 08, 2010 unanimous vote by the Wildomar City Council (newly-elected Benoit and Walker never even asked a single question before they voted) to join the Joint Powers Agency (“JPA”) of the Animal Friends of the Valley (“AFV”).

In my opinion, and as an elemental part my original concept of “Re-Thinking Wildomar,”  the decision to join the  AFV/JPA is having a detrimental impact on the City of Wildomar budget, and was based on  inadequate financial information.

Once I have “made my case” for my readers, using the numbers taken from public documents, we can then fairly reach reasonable conclusions and allocate culpability.

Submitted for your comparative analysis,  are the following numbers to consider:

1) $354,300, the current budget allocation (2011-12) for animal control services provided by AFV/JPA. (On a per capita basis, that’s double what most cities pay for animal control services).
2) $  82,250, the estimated amount of revenue generated by license fees and citations “given away,” without ample justification, to AFV by the City Council.
3) $436,550, the total annual economic cost to Wildomar for animal control services by contracting with AFV and joining the JPA.

On July 22, 2009, according to documents just received, Interim City Manager John Danielson made a presentation to the City Council, comparing animal control costs to be provided by AFV with the cost of animal control services to be provided by Riverside County.

At that time, AFV proposed providing Field Services for “1 officer, 5 hours/day, 5 days per week, including Animal Sheltering, while retaining all city licensing and citation revenues.” The proposal is in the amount of $90,000 per year, but that was before  their costly construction project began.

Riverside County Department of Animal Services proposed providing Field services for “1 officer, 8 hours/day, 5 days per week, including Animal Sheltering services,” in the amount of $317,695 per year.

At that time, as of July 2009, it was a “no-brainer,” and the City Council made the proper decision to contract with AFV.

However, subsequent to July 2009, AFV completed their $12 million Mammalian Taj Mahal and all of the economic dynamics changed dramatically for AFV.

Nonetheless, when the vote to join the JPA came before the newly-constituted City Council on December 08, 2010, City Staff apparently failed to reconsider those changes and presented only one option for animal control services, unilaterally favoring the AFV/JPA, based upon “deal points” negotiated by City Manager Frank Oviedo, in the company of then-Mayor Bridgette Moore.

 And now for the missing calculations:

1) $   76,361, for “adjusted” Field Services, based on 1300 hours per year versus 2080 hours per year. (A 32.5% difference in the number of hours proposed).
2) $195,515, for Animal Sheltering services at San Jacinto Shelter, as of July 2009.
3) $271,876, total of 1) and 2).
4)<$ 82,250>, reduced/offset by the income for City Licensing and citation revenues, if properly retained by the city.
5) $189,626, the net annual cost for animal control services if the City entered an agreement with the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.

Apparently, after making the initial decision to contract with AFV for animal control services, the AFV/JPA began  their political seduction of the City of Wildomar ( dare I suggest the political influence of the Chamber of Commerce?), and no one on City Staff considered taking another look at the Riverside County Department of Animal Services, in order to secure an up-to-date proposal for a “side-by-side” comparison with the cost of joining with the AFV/JPA, before making their staff recommendation to the City Council.

Another “no-brainer.”

Different descriptive context, however.

Let’s do the final math now, as follows:

1) $436,550, the total current annual cost for animal control services, including the ceding of “all City licensing and citation revenues” to AFV.
2) $189,626, the total net cost for animal control services, achieved by utilizing the Riverside County Department of Animal Services, while retaining license and citation revenues.
3) $246,924, the annual cost difference between the two services.

That’s another quarter million dollars  out of Wildomar’s budget, per year.

This information should truly annoy the hard-working volunteers that are taking care of Marna O’Brien Park.

Here’s my point.

In response to my request for all documents “pertaining to any correspondence between the City of Wildomar and the Riverside County Department of Animal Services up to December 31, 2010,” the City Clerk stated the following: “Staff has done a search  for the records you have requested and found no records that match your request.”

Because those documents don’t exist! It is obvious the  no one on City Staff even bothered to recontact Riverside County for an up-dated, alternative proposal to compare with the AFV/JPA proposal.

 The above statement justifies my well-reasoned opinion that City Staff has failed to exercise due diligence on behalf of the citizens of Wildomar by not exploring a reasonable alternative to  the excessively costly agreement with AFV/JPA.

Wildomar deserves, and should demand, better from it’s elected officials and professional staff.

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

On September 08, 2010, I made a presentation to the City Council  by using three minutes of Public Comment to provide a thumbnail sketch of the cost of the city of Wildomar having their own animal control services. However, rather than considering my suggestion, it was “blown off” by City Staff, with the dismissive response that the Ramona shelter was all of 33 miles distance from Wildomar, as if that mattered.

Please click on the following link, and scroll down to page 5 to confirm:

http://cityofwildomar.org/uploads/files/minutes/12-08-10-cap.pdf

The Annual American Lung Association…..

….SPEWS IT’S MEANINGLESS POLITICAL SMOKE

About this same time every year, the American Lung Association begins their self-serving drive for more taxes on the use of tobacco products, which might eventually trickle down to them, by giving a letter grade for cities like Wildomar on their compliance with the Lung Association standards.

For your information, if you care, please click on the following link, and scroll down to page 57, to verify that Wildomar’s “official” grade is is a “C”:

http://www.lungusa.org/associations/states/california/assets/pdfs/sotc-2012/sotc-2012_ca-report.pdf

I suppose we could do better but than a C, but then who cares?

Hopefully, City Council of Wildomar will ignore the American Lung Association’s grading system.

Who cares what ” they say,”  in any event? (Context left intentionally ambiguous).

Perhaps the adolescents of the City Council will be able to restrain themselves from seeking the approval of everyone except for the citizens they are supposed to serve

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

Zak was hoping that some preemptive mockery will keep the fatuous issue off the City Council agenda.

The “Pottery Barn Rule”…..

… A TEACHABLE MOMENT FOR BRIDGETTE MOORE

This morning’s Californian article on the hard-working volunteers who are supporting the efforts of the nonprofit, “Friends for Wildomar Parks,” appears to focus on Wildomar City Councilmember Bridgette Moore who has, once again, put herself into the forefront/limelight of the latest park fundraising event.

Please click on the following link to confirm:

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/wildomar/wildomar-donated-items-to-help-keep-park-open/article_9e47047e-3350-5557-b141-4082d0bbc6e0.html

Unfortunately for Bridgette, she has unwittingly (her standard state of cognition) triggered  a  slight variant of what is known as the “Pottery Barn Rule,” which basically states, “you broke it, you own it.”

Click on the following link to expand the breadth of your own state of cognition, as a reader of Wildomar Magazine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery_Barn_rule

The sad fact of life in Wildomar is that the popular, but inept Former Mayor and her equally inept colleague’s failed effort to fund our parks, through their pre-doomed Measure D, is the primary reason that these harried volunteers are being forced into extraordinary efforts, such as the Goodwill collection.

The bottom line is, Bridgette and Her Buddies broke our parks.

But that is in the past.

For the present, it is an equally sad fact of life in Wildomar, that the current City Council and staff, have been unwilling to respond  to City Councilmember Bob Cashman’s reasonable suggestion (by ignoring it) that sufficient funding could be re-allocated within the current budget to pay for the water for Marna O’Brien Park, especially if some of the grassy areas were reduced in size (which Mother Nature is doing now, in any event).

Since the soft-spoken Cashman’s reasonable suggestion was ignored, perhaps Bridgette could do herself, and the hard-working volunteers,  a favor and try to remain out of the spotlight.

It taints the volunteer effort to look more like a desperate re-election campaign ploy for Bridgette.

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

(Editor’s note: With the preparation of the 2012-13 budget currently underway, now would be the appropriate time for the Friends of Wildomar Parks to put pressure on the City Council to eliminate the $50,000+ per year Community Services Director position and reallocate the money to our parks. (I think Wildomar could  do without dance lessons, sewing classes and happy birthday greetings from Facebook to out-of-town realtors and escrow office employees, if it meant more support for parks).

The Community Services Director, who is not an employee of the City, but merely a contract vendor, has no severance package in place, so the sooner you speak out the better. (It would be more “business friendly” to do so).

If You Lived Near Long Beach In The ’50s…..

… YOU MIGHT REMEMBER THIS TRAGIC EVENT

I was a seven-year-old youngster, living in Brookings, South Dakota when we received word that my first cousin Shirley Roberts, and her infant son, Douglas, had been killed  by a  Navy jet which had crashed into her home  in the community of Signal Hill, which is completely surrounded by the larger City of Long Beach.

The local newspaper, the Brookings Register, carried the story on the front page, with a photo of a firefighter carrying the tiny remains of a baby in his hands.

Please click on the following to read of the event and the only newspaper archive that I could find chronicling the event online:

http://www.newspaperarchive.com/SiteMap/FreePdfPreview.aspx?img=100506665

When Shirley’s husband returned to his home that evening, only to find everything he loved gone, his hair understandably turned white overnight.

Since Shirley was the second child of my eldest uncle, I can recall only one other happenstance involving Shirley. It was when she returned home to her parent’s house, where I was visiting with my parents, after having been in a solo car accident (Shirley and her friends apparently rolling over in one of the prominent ditches that are common to rural dirt roads in the Midwest). I can recall how she painfully limped around the living room due to her injuries.

As a teenager growing up in Long Beach, I used to include a brief tour (included, without additional cost, if the young lady were fortunate enough to be asked out on an infrequent date with the quirky geek, Gil Rasmussen) to the corner of 19th St. and Raymond Avenue, where the concrete foundation of the destroyed residence remained exposed for many years.

Which probably explains why I never got very many second dates (when I felt sufficiently confident to attempt my initial good night kiss “move”).

Shirley Roberts and her infant son were buried in the same plot at the All Souls Cemetery on Cherry Avenue, just north of Carson St.

Thirty-five years after the event, my elderly uncle confessed that his daughter had approached him and requested the use of his brand-new Chevrolet for a vacation trip to South Dakota. Unfortunately, Uncle’s stingy demeanor prevented him from acquiescing to his daughter’s request.

Had he done so, to his lifelong regret, the Navy jet would have struck his daughter’s unoccupied house.

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

Wildomar’s Recipe For Disaster?……

 

…..JUST ADD WATER

As with most new developments and proposals, I began to search the Internet for related stories and articles  about the proponents of the Cable Ski Park, an idea being “floated” in water-challenged Wildomar.

Lo and behold, I found  an informative article on a similar, if not the same, cable ski park project (it is Sudweeks Development), originally intended for Santee Lakes, which is located in eastern San Diego County.

Please click on the following links, if you want to inform yourselves:

http://eastcountymagazine.org/node/5761

http://eastcountymagazine.org/node/1747

Since the date of this article is March 2011, the adverse economic conditions of less than a year ago have hardly changed.

At the very least, the Wildomar Planning Commission and the City Council need to be cautious in considering this project. 

A financial feasibility study should be required of the proponents, for review by the city, as the part of the City’s “due diligence”, to properly protect the city’s interests. Unlike a residential development, whose failure is normally, eventually mitigated by the marketplace (some of that particular mitigation is occurring  right now in Wildomar), a “single-purpose use” project, if it fails economically, would remain an eyesore for years to come.

What is disturbing is the confidential agreements that led the developer, after being advised of the ending of the agreement between the two entities, to request a “settlement.” Even though it was reported that there was no “monetary exchange, “the Padre Water District must have had to give up some rights, or why describe it as a “settlement?”

And why make the decision in  a closed session?

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

Pure Adrenaline….

….  AHEAD FOR WILDOMAR?

It is likely, given the unsophisticated, adolescent mindset of our current City Council that the skies over Wildomar will soon be occupied by flying piglets.

Please click on the following link for a video “taste” of what may lay ahead for our once-rural community:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTvvhkY71FY

In your wildest dreams, dear Wildomarian, is this what you “visioned” for your community?

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

When you lack even one mature brain among your cohort, quirky things amuse you.

Any Business Is….

….GOOD BUSINESS

So says your boy-Mayor, Ben Benoit, in another fatuous quote in today’s Press-Enterprise.

Please click on the following link to savor his wisdom:

http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/wildomar/wildomar-headlines/20120121-wildomar-long-road-ahead-for-cable-wakeboard-park.ece

Benoit went on to say that there are “a lot of questions to be answered still.”

As a public service, Wildomar Magazine suggests the following “Top Ten” list of questions for the boy-Mayor:

10) When it’s built, can I be the first one to ride on it? I can? Yippie! You have my vote!

9) If I wear my Speedo swim trunks, would I be visible from the freeway? I will? Yippie! You have my vote!

8) Do tall towers, which resemble cell phone towers, make Wildomar’s butt look too large? (See above photograph taken from their website.)

7) Will there be an express lane for local ambulance service?

6) Can we have Chamber of Commerce mixers at the facility? We can? Yippie! You have my vote!

5) Will you provide monetary support for the reelection of incumbents? You will? Yippie! You have our vote!

4) if Lake Elsinore’s cable ski park, whose application is already in progress, puts you out of business, would you clean up your mess? You won’t? Who cares?

3) If a beer and wine license is eventually authorized, can it be a microbrewery? It can? Yippie! You have my vote!

2) Will pulling water from the existing water table for a 9 acre lake have a negative impact on nearby wells? It will? Whatever! You have my vote!

 1) Will giving  up 15 acres of prime commercial/business park (the current land use designation) land for a playground/arcade (there’s no tax increment for the City from entrance fees or parking fees), be the “highest and best” use of this land?

After all, “any business is good business.” (Mayor Benoit, 2012). You already know you have my vote!

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

Note to City Manager, Frank Oviedo. If you notice on the Press Enterprise link, (see below), you will observe  that the  City of Wildomar logo is prominently displayed on the graphic, which appears to be taken from a Power Point presentation.

Unless the City of Wildomar is already endorsing this project, the applicant should be required to remove it from their public presentations.

If this PowerPoint presentation, which displays the city’s logo, was made before the City Council and the Planning Commission, without any disclaimer from anyone in the City, somebody is not doing their job!

Beyond Silly, This is…..

 

…. MEANINGLESS

Comparable, in many ways, to those emotionally-challenged among us who still believe that a group of harried waitresses clustered at the edge of your dinner table, and singing some variant of a happy birthday ditty, are capable of conveying genuine and heartfelt words of congratulation on the anniversary of your birth, the City of Wildomar is paying someone on City Staff to send birthday greetings to folks who have no relevant connection to (such as being a resident of) the City of Wildomar.

Please click on the following link to the city of Wildomar’s silly Facebook (you will have to be logged into your own Facebook page to do this, if you have one, or observe the example below) page to confirm:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1769075316

“Patricia, the City of Wildomar…” on Patricia Calvin‘s Wall.

• “Mimi, the City of Wildomar…” on Mimi McLay‘s Wall.

• “Elliott, the City of Wildomar…” on Elliott Nissim‘s Wall.

• “Clinton, the City of Wildomar…” on Clinton Wade‘s Wall.

• “Neil, the City of Wildomar…” on Neil Simard-Realtor‘s Wall.

 

It appears  to be an endless, obsessive exercise in silliness.

Few of the celebrants are citizens of the City of Wildomar.

Presumably, most of these  people are “Friends” of Wildomar’s  Facebook page which, to my recollection, was never authorized by a properly agendized  vote of approval by the City Council in the first place.

I doubt that the recipients of Wildomar’s birthday wishes even notice  the recognition, as there is rarely any responsive memo of thanks posted in return.

Therefore, it is obvious that the Executive staff, perhaps even His Redundancy, City Manager Frank Oviedo  has knowingly authorized someone on his staff to be an official representative of the City for this silly, meaningless exercise.

Meaningless, save for the actual expense of staff to do so. The staff time taken to do this must be allocated somewhere in the budget.

What is not meaningless is the imprimatur of the City’s express approval of the authorized use and access to the city’s logo and brand.

Unless someone on the City Council speaks out with corrective policy direction, or City Staff quietly ceases this practice, the citizens of Wildomar may plausibly conclude that the entire hierarchy of the City of Wildomar is demonstrably emotionally-challenged.

Comments should be made,  via your e-mail, to foviedo@cityofwildomar.org

It’s important that the adults of Wildomar have their voice heard. A simple e-mail, from you, asking City Manager to stop this practice should suffice.

This activity would be more appropriate if it emanated from the Wildomar Chamberpot of Commerce.

Then folks who mostly don’t live or work in Wildomar could “network” with other folks who mostly don’t live or work in Wildomar.

By the way, if today is your birthday, Wildomar Magazine and the entire editorial staff, wish you the happiest of birthdays.

(Editor’s note:  There is a Facebook function that enables the gathering of Friend birthdays. However, it still takes  valuable staff time to initially set this up and then maintain it throughout the year.)

Please click on the following link for reference:

 http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/44594/how-to-setup-birthday-reminders-for-your-facebook-friends-in-google-calendar/

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND VIEWS OF WILDOMAR MAGAZINE…

100,000 views all-time

As 7:35 PM, January 19, 2012.

Fate has a way of hitting it’s important marks with a dramatic flair.

Wildomar Magazine received its 100,000th view during the middle of the South Carolina presidential debate. (Perhaps Newt or Mitt checked in during a break).

Since starting Wildomar Magazine in July 2008, there were three specific events that threatened to stifle my satirical humor and creativity, each without success.

1) On May 03, 2009, I suffered a major stroke in the right hemisphere of my brain, rendering the left side of my body with a significant deficit. Probably the most daunting element to a stroke is the absolute fog that initially encompasses one’s brain, rendering mental activity a physically challenging enterprise.

However, with the assistance of excellent medical practitioners  and a wonderful personal nurse, I’ve recovered to the level of 100% mentally, 80% physically, and 70% emotionally. (Which is why you may have witnessed an emotional display while speaking before the occasional City Council meeting).

 The human brain is a marvelous creation, what with it’s ability to repair and rewire itself, especially if a stroke victim listens to his neurologist and exerts himself to recovery.

2) On December 08, 2009, former Mayor Scott Farnam, physically assaulted this writer over several as always well-written articles on Wildomar Magazine. Farnam’s resort to physical violence and intimidation in order to suppress criticism from a citizen while  an elected public official is probably the most anti-democratic action that can be achieved in our free society.

Congratulations are in order to Scott Farnam for his extraordinary achievement in political depravity in a democracy.

2) An “outsider” from Menifee attempts to coerce Wildomar Magazine.

Please click on the following link, for context:

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/wildomar/article_afeaaa23-849a-51d3-81f3-300f2d367aab.html

Californian reporter, Michael J. Williams,  captures the essence of the issue in this reprint of his July 29, 2010 article.

What is satisfying to me is that, Scott Farnam and Patty Dorati and her Wildomar Gazette are both jaded, faded memories of Wildomar’s past.

And Zak Turango and Wildomar Magazine continue to reach ever loftier measurable achievements.

To paraphrase Nancy Sinatra, “These boots are made for walkin’, and that’s just what I’ll do, ’cause one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.”

Just not today!! Nor any day since July 2008.

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

 (Editor’s note: As it turns out, the first person, that would be myself, to put “pen to paper” has a de facto copyright to their intellectual property. Wildomar Magazine was created before the city of Wildomar inaugurated, and long before Patty Dorati emerged in Wildomar’s public life. See “Early Archives category).

The “Real Estate Agent Effect” In Action….

…COMING  TO WILDOMAR AS WELL?

Having observed the City of Lake Elsinore since the early 1990s, and writing about its political processes since 1996, starting with a  stint as a columnist for the Lake Elsinore Sun Tribune (I was a Jeanie Corral favorite), followed by being the Prime Contributor to Elsinore Magazine, the political battle in Lake Elsinore was, for the most part, a seesaw affair between the Downtown Business Associates and the real estate agents, fighting over which group could best exploit the unrepresented citizen taxpayers of Lake Elsinore.

The Lake Elsinore/Wildomar Patch published a recent article about what happens to communities, in my opinion, when real estate agents are in charge, as follows:

http://www.miller-mccune.com/business-economics/how-foreclosures-feasted-on-some-cities-not-others-38928/

Whenever it was Fred Dominguez and his happy band of antique purveyors in charge, it tended to be “small ball” politics in action, acting in their own selfish but limited interests.

However, when the real estate agents like former Mayor Gary Washburn entered the fray, they all discovered the “big ball” benefits of Redevelopment, which provided a new source of revenue for all of the meaningless “historic-ish ” business façades slapped on the front of Main Street buildings (to the direct economic benefit of Washburn, Dominguez, and George Alongi, to name a few), while ignoring the seismic deathtrap status of the same buildings.

If you doubt my words, take a walk down Main Street and observe all of the warning plaques attached to the façades of these buildings, putting you on notice that your unfortunately-timed entry into one of these buildings could result in the loss of your life.

If you are short on time, forget the walk, and  go straight to  your “Cultural Center,” which many of you know better as the site of your City Council meetings. That warning plaque is prominently displayed on the front wall.

My guess is that if an earthquake occurs while you were attending a City Council meeting, your survivors could not successfully sue Lake Elsinore, because you “assumed the risk” of your own demise, when you chose to walk into such a building.

In true Lake Elsinore fashion, your City Council recently agreed to spend thousands of dollars on fire sprinklers to protect an old building the city owns, rather than retrofit said building to protect the lives of City Council attendees.

In any event, at some point in time, when it is economically feasible, “Lake Elsinore Lightning” will likely strike the Cultural Center before the “Big One” does, requiring its replacement at some insurance company’s expense.

Adding ineffective sprinklers to an old firetrap makes an insurance payout less suspicious. It even adds another $1 million layer of insurance coverage from the insurance company of the sprinkler subcontractor.

If the “Big One” does strike before the buildings are retrofitted for seismic activity, Lake Elsinore’s Downtown will truly become “historic,” in the sense that it will exist only in old photographs.

However, enough about the long and tawdry history of Lake Elsinore, I want to turn to the short and tawdry history of the City of Wildomar.

Wildomar sits on the precipice of following Lake Elsinore’s “developer friendly” demise, saved only by the lack of actual development, due to dire economic conditions, but only for the present. (Recessions, even bad ones, don’t last forever.)

The “Real Estate Agent Effect” is embodied in the overrepresentation of real estate agents in Wildomar’s body politic.

Former Mayor Marsha Swanson is a real estate broker, which means she runs a entire herd of  voracious agents. Former Mayor Scott Farnam is a real estate broker. Swanson has nominated two successive real estate agents in a dismal row, to be her Planning Commissioner, neither of whom have uttered a single, meaningful word in public deliberation.

Boy-Mayor Ben Benoit appointed real estate broker Stan Smith to be “his” Planning Commissioner, likely at the behest of Marsha Swanson, or, at the very least, Benoit and Smith “bonded”at a Chamberpot of Commerce mixer.

By the way, Planning Commission Vice Chair Stan Smith will likely be elevated to the position of Chairman (“Chair”) of the Planning Commission on Wednesday evening, despite having a significant and unresolved code violation for a large,  and visible, “collection” of construction debris on his rural property, to the dismay of his neighbors.

At this point in time, there is little that Wildomar can do to change its “future,” inasmuch as the voters of Wildomar appear to have the same proclivity for self-destruction, through the promotion and elevation of real estate agents to political power, as did Lake Elsinore’s voters.

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

By the way, and for the record, one of my career detours was as a real estate agent. In the 1980s, Ole Zak was the “top listing agent” for all of the ERA franchises throughout Central California.

Yep, I too, made my living as a 6% parasite so I know whereof I speak.

Anyone who takes 6% of your hard earned “sweat equity,” simply because the system that would enable you to sell your house is rigged, through the Multiple Listing Service, is a parasite.